The last time we heard from Laura Marling, her album was dedicated to a hypothetical daughter. Song for Our Daughter was released in April 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, and the offspring referred to in the title was a purely figurative one. It did prove to be a strangely prophetic title, for Marling’s follow-up is all about her actual daughter, born not too long after the release of her last album.
Patterns in Repeat, her eighth album, is a record all about parenthood, recorded in snatches at home, with her new born baby by her side. It makes for a beautifully intimate album, one recorded demo-style in her living room, with no drums and featuring Marling’s voice accompanied only by guitar, piano and strings. If you listen…